Americans are skipping lettuce and salads as investigation into cyclospora outbreak continues

The outbreak has sickened at least 6,700 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal officials have pointed to iceberg lettuce as the culprit, and have recommended that people stop eating iceberg lettuce that is sold by Taylor Farms and sourced in Mexico, which has been recalled by the company while they investigate.

However, without a confirmed source or a resolution in sight, consumers have to make their own choices about how to avoid contracting Cyclospora cayetanensis — a parasite that causes explosive diarrhea, among other gastrointestinal symptoms.

Read: Detecting cyclospora is ‘notoriously difficult’

Some consumers have stopped purchasing lettuce and other greens sold by restaurant and grocery chains. Instead, some are buying local lettuce if they can afford it and live near growers, according to Ernest Baskin, chair of the food, pharma and healthcare department at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.

“A consumer can’t just say, ‘OK, I’m no longer eating from “X” brand or I’m no longer eating “X,” right?’” Baskin said. “Now they have to cast a wider net if they want to protect themselves.”

Restaurants have had to make similar bets. Some smaller restaurants last week threw out lettuce, greens and bagged salad mixes; pulled salads and raw vegetables from menus; or only served greens like spinach that had been cooked. Restaurant managers said they would wait for more clarity from health officials before bringing back those items, while also noting that fears of cyclosporiasis hadn’t put much of a dent in business so far.

That said, shares of several restaurant chains closed lower on Monday once it became clear to investors that the investigation remained ongoing. Cava Group’s stock tumbled 7.8%, Chipotle Mexican Grill shares fell 3.8% and Sweetgreen’s stock was down 6%. And there is fresh data suggesting that the outbreak is making consumers nervous.

Customer traffic at Taco Bell restaurants in the U.S. was 18.9% lower on Friday than the average Friday for the chain so far this year, according to Placer.ai, a firm that tracks retail and restaurant foot traffic. Taco Bell is owned by Yum Brands The fast-food chain, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has said that it removed all “affected” Taylor Farms lettuce from its restaurants.

“Visitation trends decreased sharply at Taco Bell after the FDA and CDC named the chain in its investigation of the cyclosporiasis outbreak,” Placer.ai said Monday in a statement. “While national visitation trends initially only fell [by] low single digits compared to year-to-date day-of-week averages, those declines fell to the high teens in the latter part of last week.”

At the privately-held salad chain Chopt, customer traffic on Friday was 14.3% lower than what has been typical for the chain on a Friday this year. At Chipotle and Cava, that traffic was down by 6.9% and 4.2%, respectively.

Cava and Sweetgreen did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs and food-safety officer, said in a brief statement that the chain was tracking the investigation, adding: “At this time, we don’t believe the ingredients we source are associated.”

Taylor Farms supplies several major restaurant and grocery chains — including Chipotle, which has said it doesn’t serve shredded iceberg lettuce and that its other greens are not from Mexico. Fast-food chain Jack in the Box last week told its restaurants to remove potentially affected lettuce and replace it with greens from a domestic site.

The outbreak and ensuing drop in foot traffic arrived as the restaurant industry remains locked in a discount war. Chains are trying to win back shoppers they scared away with menu price increases they made in the wake of the pandemic.

‘It highlights what the supply chains look like’

As part of the “traceback” investigation, federal regulators last week identified a link between Taco Bell restaurants in five states and iceberg lettuce from a single supplier, which was later confirmed to be Taylor Farms, a massive privately held produce supplier based in Salinas, Calif. On Friday, Taylor Farms recalled iceberg lettuce from central Mexico. Taco Bell had already pulled lettuce from its menus in the five affected states.

Then, a positive lab test that confirmed contaminated lettuce from Taylor Farms later turned out to be a false positive. Taylor Farms said the Food and Drug Administration had “apologized” for its “mistake.” However, the false positive didn’t change the direction of the FDA’s investigation. 

“To clarify, this false-positive lab sample DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms,” the regulator wrote Monday on X.

The back-and-forth between Taylor Farms and regulators is the latest wrinkle that consumers have to navigate while they figure out what’s safe to eat right now.

“Events like this highlight how few players there are and how widespread an event on one farm can affect people across the country,” said Cara Cuite, a health psychologist and associate professor of human ecology at Rutgers University. “It highlights what the supply chains look like, which might be surprising to some people.”

During past foodborne outbreaks, some consumers changed their eating habits — though those changes were rarely lasting, she noted.

“After really large outbreaks in the past, we do see a drop-off [among consumers],” Cuite said, “but it’s never permanent.”